Milwaukee's Sojourner inspires Rockford family justice center effort

Saturday

Jan 12, 2019 at 6:00 AM

MILWAUKEE — Natalie Hayden said that for years she felt trapped in an abusive marriage, afraid what effect leaving her husband would have on her daughter.

But after hearing about the Sojourner Family Peace Center in Milwaukee, the 36-year-old mom decided she needed to move on and needed help to do it. The Peace Center offered her and her 7-year-old daughter a place to live for eight months, long enough get back on her feet with the help of counseling, information, trauma therapy and legal assistance.

“Sojourner offered so many things under one roof, it was an opportunity for me to finally leave and stay gone,” Hayden said. “I left him so many times and went back. This time, I felt there was hope.”

Experts say stories like hers are far too common. And in Rockford and Winnebago County, domestic violence remains among the area’s most pervasive crime problems. A majority of those charged with violent juvenile crimes witnessed or were victims of domestic violence.

A contingent of 30 advocates from Rockford and Winnebago County — eager to improve services for victims of domestic violence and their families — this week visited Sojourner.

The nearly 72,000-square-foot center could become a model for Rockford to co-locate law enforcement, domestic violence advocates, sex assault services, social services, child abuse investigation, health care, mental health and others under a single roof inside a family justice center in Rockford.

Already the effort has won a competitive $449,870 grant from the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Violence Against Women.

And the group has privately raised $64,000 to bring experts from the Alliance for Hope International to Rockford Feb. 26 and 27 to help formulate what a center would look like here, what services it might offer and how to overcome the obstacles establishing the center will face.

Mayor Tom McNamara said it was inspiring to tour Sojourner and learn about how it operates. McNamara said he is confident a coalition will come together to make a similar center a reality in Rockford.

“The key is not just to be in a building, but to have true partnerships in that building and have true collaboration,” McNamara said.

Sojourner took about 10 years to come to fruition. Advocates in Rockford and Winnebago County are hopeful they can get it done far faster.

Sojourner is bright, with plenty of natural light, designed to send a message of hospitality and hope.

Its mission is to “transform lives impacted by domestic violence.” Supported by Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin, Sojourner opened in 2016. It brought together Milwaukee Public Schools, Jewish Family Services, the Milwaukee Police Department Sensitive Crimes Unit and the Milwaukee County District Attorney's Office, among many others.

It has a Child Advocacy Center capable of detecting, treating and investigating abuse. It also has a 54-bed crisis shelter for women and children, crisis intervention, counseling and therapy, case management services and health education. There are services for victims of sex assault and of human trafficking.

Hayden said she had struggled to leave a husband she said abused her. In many ways she said he was a good father to her daughter. But financial and emotional manipulation, slowly escalated into physical abuse in 2016, Hayden said. She says her now ex-husband would hold her down and wouldn’t allow her to leave until she submitted.

Sojourner offered her hope.

“One of the main things I needed was security, and I didn’t want my daughter’s life completely dismantled and disrupted,” Hayden said. “That’s what happens when victims of domestic violence decide they need to leave. They take into consideration the safety of their children, how their lives could change, and the possibility of retraumatizing them.”

Sojourner was built with the help of a public-private partnership. Wisconsin kicked in $10.6 million and advocates raised $12 million in private gifts. They also secured $4.5 million in new market tax credit funding.

Milwaukee County Chief Deputy District Attorney Kent Glover said that his office has about a dozen prosecutors of 125 that do nothing but domestic violence work.

For years, communities struggled with how to deal with domestic violence, which was often viewed as a private issue between couples. But Glover said it became clear to prosecutors and law enforcement officers that they were seeing the same families time and again as those who experienced domestic violence as witnesses or victims, were often those later being arrested for gun crimes.

“We were all patting ourselves on the back if we achieved a conviction rate of 50 percent,” Glover said. “But we felt like it wasn’t enough in terms of stemming the tide and really making a generational difference in the lives of a lot of these families. We saw we were cycling a lot of the same families through the system ... we just felt we should do something different.”

Sojourner President and CEO Carmen Pitre said that the Rockford advocates should expect “naysayers,” detractors and those who warn that it can’t be, or in some cases, shouldn’t be done.

“I kept moving toward my north star because I knew that if I had been raped, or my daughter was raped, or my daughter was battered, this is the building I would want available for her,” Pitre said. “And if I wanted it for her, I needed to want it for other people.”

Jeff Kolkey: 815-987-1374; jkolkey@rrstar.com; @jeffkolkey

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